Diplomatic divide over Lebanon crisis widens [video report]

BRUSSELS - A diplomatic divide over how to end the fighting in Lebanon widened today, with France pressing for an early UN ceasefire resolution while the United States directed new warnings at Syria and Iran.

European Union president Finland said Israel might have drawn the wrong conclusion from an international conference in Rome yesterday by believing it had been allowed to continue its offensive against Hizbollah guerrillas.

Finnish Foreign Minister Tuomioja, speaking after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, told Reuters he had expressed concern after the Israeli justice minister said the outcome of the Rome talks was a green light to continue bombing.

"I raised this with Prime Minister Olmert and he said this was not the government position," Tuomioja said by telephone from Tel Aviv.

However, he said Israel still believed it could achieve its objective of crushing Hizbollah. "I'm afraid it could go on for weeks. That seems to be the Israeli reading of the situation," Tuomioja said.

"They think they need the time to achieve their military goals and they still think they are achievable so far."

Tuomioja said he had urged an immediate cessation of hostilities to stop civilian suffering and avoid fuelling extremism in the Middle East.

Israel pummelled southern Lebanon and Hizbollah guerrillas fired rockets into north Israel a day after the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia inflicted the heaviest casualties since fighting began when it captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

Major powers papered over cracks at the Rome talks by pledging to work for an urgent -- but not immediate -- ceasefire and agreeing on the need for an international peacekeeping force, but their differences were on display again a day later.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy called for a ministerial meeting of the United Nations Security Council early next week to discuss a ceasefire resolution.

"France has presented a plan, the outlines of a UN Security Council resolution. We have asked for a meeting of the Security Council, which I hope will be at a ministerial level... on July 31 or August 1," he told France-Inter radio.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Malaysia to meet Asian foreign ministers, said she was prepared to go back to the region but repeated Washington's view that a ceasefire must be sustainable and get rid of all militias.

"I am willing and ready to go back to the Middle East at any time that I think we can move towards a sustainable ceasefire that can end the violence," she told a news conference.

Diplomats said Rice would probably return to Israel and Beirut at the weekend after the Asean Regional Forum meeting.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and European ministers have called for efforts to engage Syria and Iran constructively in seeking a political solution in Lebanon.

However Rice, who blocked demands in Rome for an immediate ceasefire, warned Hizbollah's two backers they faced further isolation if they tried to "torpedo" US efforts to bring an end to the fighting on Israel's terms.

She told reporters flying with her to Malaysia that Syria, which pulled out of Lebanon last year after 29 years, should not be allowed to return and influence events there. Neither should Iran, which she accused of supporting "extremist elements".

"This needs to be between Lebanon and Israel," Rice said.

European and Arab diplomats say a solution must take account of the interests of Syria and Iran.

An intelligence official said Iranian national security chief Ali Larijani was on an unannounced visit to Damascus today to discuss the Lebanon crisis with Syrian leaders and to urge continued support for Hizbollah.

Diplomats said elements of a political solution emerged in private talks among Rice, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Annan and Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in Rome.

These included a ceasefire resolution, a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hizbollah, an end to a territorial dispute over a border area known as the Shebaa Farms occupied by Israel, moves to disarm Hizbollah and strengthen the Lebanese army and the deployment of an EU-led peace force in southern Lebanon.

"Of course we don't have all that everyone wanted, but the Rome meeting was necessary to clear the ground," a European participant said. "No one expected an immediate ceasefire."

The European Union is working on putting together a robust peacekeeping force, probably led by France, that would have a UN mandate to patrol southern Lebanon and boost the Lebanese army, keeping Hizbollah away from the Israeli border.

EU foreign ministers will hold emergency talks next week to discuss the crisis and their role in the proposed force.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Berlin sought a quick agreement on sending UN troops, and would decide thereafter whether to contribute its own forces.

At the United Nations in New York, China warned the United States that its opposition to a statement condemning an Israeli attack on a UN post in Lebanon that killed four observers could jeopardise UN negotiations on Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"This is a serious matter," China's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, told reporters after a private meeting with US negotiators. "It is an attack on the UN peacekeepers."

- REUTERS